DOCUMENT: Crime

Injudicious Judge May Be Benched

Florida jurist who told woman to "close her legs" facing inquiry

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Injudicious Judge May Be Benched

MAY 20--A Florida judge is facing a disciplinary hearing for a host of allegedly inappropriate behavior on the bench, including the recommendation to one female defendant that she "needed to close her legs and stop having babies." In the below notice of charges, the state's Judicial Qualifications Commission alleges that Circuit Judge Richard Albritton, 57, demeaned both defendants and lawyers in his Panama City courtroom. Among the commission's many allegations is the claim that Albritton (pictured at right) once demanded that a teenage mother identify the father of her baby. When the girl declined to answer, Albritton told her that he would "put her back in juvenile detention" if she did not give up the dad's name. (8 pages)